According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, a
cancer cluster is defined as a greater-than-expected number of cancer cases that occurs within a group of people in a
geographic area over a period of time. Before I was diagnosed with cancer, I never stopped to wonder if I was living in
a cancer cluster area. This is a brief list, from 1 in 9, of famous
cancer clusters:Tom’s River, New Jersey: 103 children are part of the nation’s largest cancer cluster. 4,500 drums of toxic liquid were dumped at a nearby landfill.
Woburn, Massachusetts: 21 children diagnosed with leukemia at the time the town’s drinking water was found to be contaminated by a hazardous waste deep-injection well.
Hinkley, California: cancer cluster chromium from the utility winding up in the residents’ well water. This was the site used in the movie, Erin Brockovich.
Oak Park, Illinois, 1989: four children in a small town of 12,000 diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a rare cancer usually striking 9 in a million, living nearby a toxic stew of coal tars left behind by a manufacturing plant 70 years prior.
Niagara, Canada (“Love Canal”) 1979: A federal report indicates a 1in 10 chance of residents contracting cancer, thousands of toxic chemicals were buried on-site 20 years prior.
Fallon, Nevada 2001: Fourteen cases of leukemia in children in the past three years, adjacent to an old mining area containing arsenic and mercury.
I do not live there now, but I lived in a famous cancer cluster area without realizing it was considered a cancer cluster area. I discovered this information after my breast cancer diagnosis, by accident, while researching breast cancer information. Imagine my initial shock and stunned realization as I began to slowly wonder if it might have been a factor in the development of my disease. It is not likely I will ever have definitive proof of the origin of my cancer. But it does make me wonder. It will always make me wonder.
If you are interested in finding information about the possible dangers where you live, because finding out on your own is possibly the only way you are going to find out about it, check the Environmental Protection Agency's National Priorities List Sites for your state. You can access information about current site listings, proposed site listings, and final site listings.
